• Sinéad O'Connor dies Success, loneliness and fight
  • Child suicide A drama of our time

The messages on social networks that singer Sinéad O'Connor published 10 days before she died have become a kind of last words in which fans of the Irish singer try to find meaning in her tragic life. Shein Lunny, O'Connor's suicidal son, appeared as the recipient of those texts.

On July 17, O'Connor wrote four times on Twitter. In the last post, he put a link on Spotify to Great Tibetan compassion mantra, a vocal piece of traditional Tibetan music attributed to Nepali-Tibetan musician Choying Drolma. O'Connor dedicated the piece "to all mothers of suicidal children." The penultimate message was another link to another song, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart by Al Green. Earlier, O'Connor played another song twice, No one knows a good thing / You don't have to cry, by Curtis Mayfield. The two pieces are, in short, stories of mourning in the key of seventies soul music.

Earlier the most personal message of that day had arrived: "I have lived as a living ghost since... He was the love of my life, the light of my soul," O'Connor wrote. "We were one soul in two halves He was the only person who loved me unconditionally. I am lost in the bardo without him" [the bardo is a Buddhist concept for the intermediate states of existence]. The message was headed by the slogan #lostmy17yrOldSonToSuicidein2022, "I lost my 17-year-old son to suicide in 2022." And it was illustrated with a photo of O'Connor with Shein, his fourth child, who committed suicide on Jan. 6, 2022.

Shane had eloped a few days earlier from a medical facility in Dublin where he was hospitalized after two previous suicide attempts. His mother also used Twitter in those days as a way to try to communicate with Shane. "Shane, your life is precious. God didn't make your beautiful smile on your beautiful face at all. My world would fall without you. You are my heart. Please don't stop beating. Please don't hurt yourself. Go to the police and we will take you to the hospital," the Irishwoman wrote. Later, O'Connor published on the same social network the confirmation of his son's death. In July last year, she was admitted after posting that she planned to follow her son's path.

  • music
  • Suicide Prevention

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